And those who strive hard for Us, We will most certainly guide them in Our ways; and Allah is most surely with the doers of good. 29:69 The Quran

IAEA & New Interpretation of NPT

Syed Javed Hussain

In the haze of propaganda that is unsparing, unprincipled, unforgiv-ing and deceitful, shapes get twisted, visions get distorted, even the wisest gets swayed and the first casualty of propaganda in such situations is the truth itself. Truth that is the breather of life otherwise everything else is crooked, non-entity and a misplacement.

The organizers of orchestrated propaganda against Islam in general and Iran in particular have completely overlooked the fact that human civilization only thrives on honesty and commitment to truth and human values.

While on her whirlwind tour to Europe and Middle East in Feb this year, her first overseas tour as US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice repeatedly said, ‘Iran cannot have nuclear capability’ and called on Europe to show “unity of purpose” with Washington in opposing Iran’s nuclear programme.

At many capitals she repeatedly said, “Iran is a destabilising force in the international system,” as “Iran supports terrorism.” How? Only God knows: the US allegations against Iran of sponsoring terrorism have never been proved.

By implication, such allegations against Iran by the US administration hint at an agenda beyond the denuclearization of Iran; ‘crying wolf’ policy shrouds the hidden agenda of regime change in Iran. Condoleezza Rice’s recent tour of the region as well as Europe last week is the repeat performance of her European tour at the beginning of the year.

The world is fed up with this diabolical chain of propaganda of the US against Iran. The world was safer before Mr Bush had moved into the White House.

Nowhere in the NPT itself as well as the additional protocol signed by Iran in 2003, which is still to be ratified by Iranian Parliament, it is forbidden to make fuel for nuclear reactors. Iran’s claim that the fuel cycle is definitely a legitimate right of every member of the IAEA, and cessation would be discrimination against an IAEA member, is fully supported by the NPT.

The arbitrary re-interpretation of the NPT on the part of the West is to help no body and brings us closer to a world crisis. Further, it needs to be worked out who has the right to interpret the treaty.

Iran has got its nuclear capability through the sweat of its scientists and Iranian nation has paid dearly for it, rendering great sacrificeseconomically and socially. We can conveniently draw a parallel with us; it is like telling us to role back our nuclear defence programme.

The enormity of the distortion regarding West’s objection on Iran having just only the nuclear capability is magnified when we know that in its neighbourhood a nuclear Israel with around 300 nuclear warheads is not even asked to sign the NPT and open its nuclear site to the IAEA. No amount of justification, although, no reasonable justification is possible for whatever reasons, can make West’s attitude towards Middle East’s nuclear issue plausible.

On 30 September the IAEA at a 139-member general conference, although rejected an Arab call to denounce Israel as a nuclear threat in the region, called for a nuclear-weapons-free zone (NWFZ) in the Middle East.

Egyptian Ambassador Ramzy Ezzeldeiin Ramzy told the IAEA conference that the resolution on a NWFZ invites Israel, ‘to join the nuclear non- proliferation treaty (NPT) and to accept that its various facilities be subject to the IAEA safeguards system.” In response, the world community got the brazen reply from Israeli atomic energy chief Gideon Frank who said that Israel advocated “achieving regional peace and security, not arms control per se.”

Presently Israel is the only country in the region that has nuclear warheads and has refused to sign the NPT. One is wonder-struck why IAEA has been so passive on this issue and has not done anything substantial to neutralize Israel’s nuclear threat to the region.

The West’s hardening attitude towards Iran springs from West’s distrust in Islamic Iran. It is augmented further by acts to terrorism, perpetrated in the name of Islam, in the US and the West by certain outfits basing in the lands of Islam. The West, however, completely ignores the fact that Islam abhors and discourages terrorism and that pristine teachings of Islam promote, peace, security, stability, human values and institutions. Islam’s contribution to human civilization can only be ignored by the most imprudent of the scholars.

If we look at the history of Iran in the post-1979 revolution, we come to know that despite the internal and external challenges to the revolution the nation has remained steadfast on the path of peace and prosperity. It may not have progressed a lot by Western standards; however, it has presented a great spectacle of success for Islamic polity.

There is always a margin of improvement in every society; however,outright rejection of a culture and society without judging its merits is not a wise thing to do.

Present day Iran is an open society with absolute personal freedomprovided human behaviour does not clash with Islamic teachings.Hankering after nation’s behaviour of revolutionary days will not do any good to anyone. French and Bolshevik revolutions are yet other similar examples that have been accepted as bad patches of European and Russian history.

It is high time the US and the West shunned their bias and stoppedlooking at Iran as an unfriendly nation. Iranian culture, religious andeconomic orientations, ethnic values and political structure is certain-ly different from that of the West; however, it is the same in terms of promoting human values and civilization. Things can be different but at the same time, they can be supportive to each other to realize common objectives at certain levels.

The only way out of the present nuclear quagmire in the Middle East is that the US and the West should scale down their demands against Iran’s nuclear programme to the dictates of the law and spirit of the NPT.

The NPT allows enrichment to make fuel for nuclear reactors, however, if the West fears that Iran is seeking the “option” to enrich to weapons-grade levels then a mechanism should be evolved to ensure that all enrichment activities would always remain peaceful and never be for military purposes.

This is the job of the IAEA, although quite emboldened after the Nobel peace prize, and no other country or agency should politicise it by interfering in its working.

Information

The organizers of orchestrated propaganda against Islam in general and Iran in particular have completely overlooked the fact that human civilization only thrives on honesty and commitment to truth and human values.﻿